The Penelopiad
For Penelope, wife of Odyseeus, maintaining a kingdom while her husband was off fighting the Trojan war was not a simple business. Already aggrieved that he had been lured away due to the shocking behaviour of her beautiful cousin Helen, Penelope must bring up her wayward son, face down...
show more
For Penelope, wife of Odyseeus, maintaining a kingdom while her husband was off fighting the Trojan war was not a simple business. Already aggrieved that he had been lured away due to the shocking behaviour of her beautiful cousin Helen, Penelope must bring up her wayward son, face down scandalous rumours and keep over a hundred lustful, greedy and bloodthirsty suitors at bay...
show less
Format: kindle
ASIN: B002VNFNGA
Publish date: 2003-10-31
Publisher: Canongate Books
Pages no: 228
Edition language: English
Series: Canongate Myths (#2)
I was somewhat trepiditious coming to this after The Handmaid's Tale, which, whilst very good, I found to be heavy going. However, Atwood gives the ghost of Penelope a very modern, chatty voice which is very easy to read. Since the book is also short, this disappeared very rapidly! Penelope delive...
For such a short thing, it certainly packed a punch. Between the unreliable but scathing narrator and the creepy chorus, I found myself running the whole gamut of reactions, from laughter to shudders. It was an interesting way of taking a stab at all the bits of the Odyssey that make you look as...
Irreverent, insightful, funny, deeply humane and empathetic. The myth of Odysseus is one of my favorite parts of Greek mythology: in telling it from the perspective of Penelope -- with a good bit about Penelope's childhood and youth, and her and Odysseus's marriage thrown in for good measure, as w...
Irreverent, insightful, funny, deeply humane and empathetic. The myth of Odysseus is one of my favorite parts of Greek mythology: in telling it from the perspective of Penelope -- with a good bit about Penelope's childhood and youth, and her and Odysseus's marriage thrown in for good measure, as w...
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood is a retelling parts of the Odyssey myth from the perspective of Odysseus's wife, Penelope. The author's aim is to answer two questions she had while reading the Odyssey: what led to the handing of Penelope's 12 maids and what was Penelope really up to? This book ...